<\/td><\/tr><\/table><\/p>\nVelvet Assassin for $6.24. I picked it up at the same Target where I got STALKER. Hmmm. This is starting to look fishy. <\/p>\n
I’m starting to wonder what is going on here. Have I stumbled on some sort of low-level scam? Similarities:<\/p>\n
- \n
- In both cases it was a “new-ish” game. Everywhere else it was still selling for full price, or perhaps had $10 knocked off. Yet here I find it for some ridiculously low price, lower than even bargain-bin shovelware that’s been on the shelves for years. More importantly, I think this is well below the turn-in value offered by GameStop. (Although GameStop doesn’t take PC games in trade.)\n<\/li>\n
- Three mark-down stickers.\n<\/li>\n
- The game is placed in some odd location. STALKER was several aisles away, mixed in with headphones and such. Velvet Assassin was mixed in with the crappy kids titles.\n<\/li>\n
- PC Titles.\n<\/li>\n
- The price is screwy. It’s $3.75 instead of $3.99. $6.24 instead of $6.99. Retailers don’t usually price things this way. I was able to peel back the stickers and see the previous prices were $1X.X6 (slightly unreadable) and $34.98.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
I’m wondering if an employee has some sort of scam going where they will “accidentally” mark something way, way down. Then they place it in an out-of-the-way spot where it’s unlikely to be noticed by a real gamer shopping for games. Later, an accomplice comes in and buys the game. The delay would make it hard to link the rogue markdowns to a specific employee. <\/p>\n
Perhaps the scammer will peel off the discount stickers and return the game unopened (perhaps even to another store) for full price. (Which would likely be in store credit, but still.) Or maybe they just keep it.<\/p>\n
Or maybe it’s all just a harmless mistake. <\/p>\n
Or maybe Target once in a while decides to get rid of a game in a hurry, and marks it down to next to nothing. Strange.<\/p>\n